Jihoon smiled back, but it was thin, like he could smell the lie. “Really?” he said. “I feel like I get mixed signals from you sometimes.”
Yes, because Yejun keeps trying to sabotage everything, I thought, hoping my smile hid my sudden urge to commit murder.
“That’s strange,” I said. I turned and gestured toward the rose. “Is that for me?”
Jihoon nodded quickly and held it out to me. “I picked out the prettiest one I could find, but it’s still not as pretty as you,” he saidquietly, his voice shaking like he’d rehearsed the line before coming here. Something about his sincerity made me suddenly feel rotten inside. This meant something to him.
“Thank you,” I said quietly, taking the rose. He’d even broken off the thorns. I slid my hand into his. “Come on, I’m hungry.”
Like always, he grinned and followed me without question.
I truly, sincerely, did my best to listen to Jihoon tell me about his summer vacation to Japan. He knew a lot about Kyoto and asked me if I knew anything about the different palaces he’d visited, so sweetly careful not to act like an expert when he knew I was Japanese. But my mind kept wandering back to the wave of white devouring the bathroom, the way that Yejun had ripped me away from its teeth. I couldn’t talk to Jihoon about the most important part of my life without putting him in danger. I had to smile in front of him and pretend to be a normal high school girl even when I felt like I was clinging to the back of a moving train. All his problems felt so minor compared to the world I was trying to hold together.
I pinched my leg under the table to ground myself in the present. I was here to finish my mission so I could stay in Seoul and save Hana. I could do it for her.
I was doing my best to nod emphatically as Jihoon talked but realized I must have missed something when he stopped and stared at me.
Quickly, I wiped my mouth on a napkin. “Sorry, did you ask me something?” I said. “I just… this ramen is so good, I kind of forgot what planet I was on for a second.”
Jihoon laughed. “I’m happy you like it,” he said. “I just asked if you wanted to go to the bunny caféwith me next week?”
Next week? Yep, I just need to go save theSewolferry from sinking a couple decades ago, then I can go pet some bunnies.
“I’d love to!” I said, because that was the right answer, the onethat he wanted. “Have you ever seen videos of that architect who only builds bunny mansions?”
Jihoon’s eyes went wide. “No, but I need to. Right this minute.”
I grinned and started to dig through my purse for my phone. I’d thrown everything a bit haphazardly from my school bag into a somewhat nice-looking bag for the date, and my phone was currently swimming somewhere at the bottom.
A shadow fell over me. I looked up as someone wearing a hoodie drew to a stop in front of the table. I barely caught a glimpse of my own face before the Echo grabbed what remained of my ramen and dumped it into my purse.
“Are you serious?” I said, shooting to my feet as the hooded Echo ran off. Jihoon stood up too but luckily didn’t try to chase down the Echo, saving me from having to make up a story about an evil twin.
I frantically dumped my purse out on the table as the Echo disappeared. I fished out my phone, which was already damp, the screen flickering dangerously. I bundled it in napkins, praying it somehow recovered. My wallet was slowly soaking up pork broth, which was rapidly spilling across the floor. I swore and tried to wipe it up with napkins as an employee appeared with a mop.
“Are you… okay…” Jihoon trailed off, clearly dumbfounded.
“It’s fine,” I said. “At least I ate most of it first.”
To my surprise, Jihoon laughed. He grabbed a few more napkins and leaned over to help me clean off the table.
“What’s so funny?” I said, still mummifying my phone in napkins.
Jihoon shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said, still giggling. “Everything is funny with you. You make things interesting.”
I let out an incredulous laugh.That’s a generous way to put it, I thought. Jihoon kept laughing—he truly had a ridiculous laugh, which sounded like squeaky windshield wipers—and soon I was laughing too. Why not? My bag was full of pork broth and noodles and I had to stop the apocalypse. My whole life was absurd.
Miraculously, my phone seemed to have survived the ordeal, though I couldn’t say the same for my bag. Jihoon paid while I stuffed my bag with napkins and we headed outside. The sun had set and Hongdae glowed with neon street signs. A crowd was gathered around a group doing some K-pop dance, and I pressed closer to Jihoon so we could squeeze through. He put a hand on my waist to guide me, and at last we emerged on the other side.
It was slightly quieter here, the K-pop music a distant soundtrack to the night.
“Mina,” Jihoon said airily. Something about his tone sounded so gentle, so earnest, that I turned around at once. He had such big brown eyes, which looked even bigger behind his glasses. He reached into his pocket and held something out to me. In the darkness, I couldn’t figure out what it was at first. But then my breath caught in my throat when I realized.
The bracelet he’d picked for me.
“You fished this out of the stream?” I said.
“Of course,” he said. “I got it for you. If you still want it, I mean.”
